Roby, Texas

First timer? In this (hopefully) once-a-day blog, I have my computer select a random latitude and longitude that puts me somewhere in the continental United States (the lower 48). I call this “landing.” I keep track of the watersheds I land in, as well as the town I land near. I do some internet research to hopefully find something of interest about my landing location. To find out more about A Landing A Day (like who “Dan” is and what the various numbers and abbreviations mean), please see “About Landing,” (and “Abbreviations” and “Cryptic Numbers”) above.

Dan –  Phew.  After a nasty 0/8 run, which state better to end the drought than the far-and-away leading USer . . . TX; 125/159 (I could land in TX the next 34+ days and it would still be a USer.  Amazing!!!); 2/10; 17; 154.8.

Here’s my landing map, showing that I practically landed in Cottonwood Creek (and also shows my proximity to Roby):

FYI, this was my 17^th different Cottonwood Creek.  I’ve also landed in the watershed of one Cottonwood Wash and one Cottonwood River.

The Cottonwood continues to the Clear Fork of the Brazos R (2^nd hit); on to the Brazos (22^nd hit); on to the G of M.  Interestingly, my first landing in the Clear Fork watershed was landing number 17 (April 29, 1999).

Here’s a broader view:

Here’s my GE shot, with the Cottonwood Creek loud and clear.  FYI, all of the contour planting you see on the farm fields is cotton.

Here’s a GE shot focused on Roby.  Looks like a nice little town from the air . . .

It seems that the big news in Roby happened back in 1996 when 43 residents of Roby each chipped in $10 to buy a bunch of Texas State Lottery tickets.  Well, son of a gun if they didn’t win $46 million (too bad it translates to a somewhat-measley $39,000/yr for 20 years).  Anyway, here’s an article from LubbockOnLine written a year after the momentus event.  I’ve done some editing, but it’s still a little long by ALAD standards (but, as always, worth the read):

A year later, Roby lotto winners still ducking spotlight

By GRETCHEN PARKER
Avalanche-Journal

ROBY – These days, there aren’t many farmers hanging out at Terry’s cotton gin.

The gin’s break room used to draw cotton farmers like a magnet. They would slog through the swirling, snowy gin dust before starting a hard day’s work and pour a hot cup – or two – of Mike Terry’s coffee.

But a year after the “Roby 43” hit the $46 million Thanksgiving lottery jackpot, local farmers – winners and nonwinners – are fed up with reporters, cameras, questions and curious stares. If they see an unfamiliar car in Terry’s lot, they’ll turn right back around and head home, Terry says.

For a year now, hundreds of reporters and talk show hosts from about a dozen countries have gravitated toward Terry’s gin, where Terry and several other lottery winners work. Terry has given up on ducking the reporters, who poured in daily for two months after the Thanksgiving drawing last year.

He is trapped at the gin, he jokes, where he works 16-18 hours a day during harvest time. Another deluge of reporters began last week, when the winners picked up their second check – they’ll get a payment of $39,000 in late November for the next 19 years.

Terry himself has given more than a hundred interviews, and he’s collected a coat box full of newspaper and magazine clippings of stories about the miracle of Roby.

“The thing that’s so hard for me to fathom is that it’s so fascinating to everyone,” Terry said. “I just can’t believe people keep coming back to do stories on us. What every reporter is dying to know – that someone has quit their job and moved to Tahiti – they’re not going to find that.”

Everyone, it seemed, wanted a piece of the story about Roby – a withering farming town of 616 on the verge of, as one winner put it last year, “drying up and blowing away.” The town had been plagued for years by drought and falling cattle prices. Now farmers about to go under could begin to wade through the red ink, and their children would have the chance to take over the land instead of relocating to nearby Abilene or Sweetwater.

There are a few new pickups, one new house and a new cotton seed mill, which was already a done deal before the lottery. But $39,000 only goes so far, the winners say.

“Everyone expected us to be buying new houses and going on big trips,” said Kathy Terry. “They seem disappointed that we’re not doing those things. But there’s nothing glamorous about being in debt. You’ve got to pay yourself out.”

The first few payments weren’t even enough to put every struggling farmer in the clear. One payment wouldn’t even pay the interest on what some of the farmers owed, Mike Terry said.

“There are winners who are still not out of the woods as far as being able to grow another season,” he said. However, a few older farmers now will be able to retire instead of trying to scratch out another year, he said.

Kathy Terry and her husband owed more than $200,000 when they decided to ante up $10 for the lottery pot last year.”When you owe that much, it’s hard to see the end of it, but we’re getting there,” Kathy Terry said.

She still works about 60 hours a week, she said. “Life hasn’t changed much when you’re still working seven days a week.”

A few haven’t even picked up last week’s checks from the bank. Most, like Terry, are working 18-hour days trying to harvest their crop.

“We’re so busy right now,” Terry said. “The crop’s more important than the lottery. When you’ve got a farmer trying to get a $300,000 crop up before El Nino hits, you’re not thinking about a $39,000 check at the bank.”

Roby farmers have been hit with a larger windfall this year than any lottery – a booming cotton crop. After three years of hauling in a drought-ridden harvest, Terry says he’s already ginned more cotton this year than in 1995 and 1996 combined.

“The cotton crop’s better than the lottery any day,” he said, smiling.

Manuel Valdez and his wife, Susie, used their winnings to pay off their restaurant, Susie’s Fish and Grill, and new equipment they’d invested in. Valdez sleeps better at night, he said, without worrying about a pile of debt.

After working at the gin for 16 years, Valdez was considering moving out of Roby until he decided to open his restaurant last August. The business was struggling until last November, he said. He’s made a nice chunk of change just feeding the reporters who come through town, he said.

His menu features a Lotto Burger special.

Valdez, who said he expected to see articles only in the local and regional newspapers, said he was stunned by the coverage at first.

“You get used to it,” he said. “If a TV crew came in here right now, I’d just tell them to wait a minute.”

Long after the people of Roby have stopped talking about the jackpot, the rest of the world is still interested. Most only mention the lottery every once in a while – when they go to buy more tickets.

“Somebody somewhere has got to win this thing twice,” Mike Terry said. “If it happens again, I’ll move. And I’ll leave an unlisted phone number.”

I can’t really find much more on Roby, except for this cool picture (from William Flood) of a couple of abandoned trucks:

That’ll do it.

KS

Greg

© 2009 A Landing A Day